Bacon's Essays, Volume 1Longmans, Green, and Company, 1881 |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 76
Page xvi
... man's industry . And those portions which I have published , concerning Winds and concerning Life and Death , are not history pure , because of the axioms and greater observations that are interposed : but they are a kind of writing ...
... man's industry . And those portions which I have published , concerning Winds and concerning Life and Death , are not history pure , because of the axioms and greater observations that are interposed : but they are a kind of writing ...
Page xvii
... man shall find much in experience , little in books , so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies . Moreover , the expe- rience of the author's old age , as well as that of his youth , finds condensed expression in the little volume ...
... man shall find much in experience , little in books , so as they are neither repetitions nor fancies . Moreover , the expe- rience of the author's old age , as well as that of his youth , finds condensed expression in the little volume ...
Page xviii
... man ever made such a confidant of paper as he did . He might have said with Montaigne , ' I speak unto paper as to the first man I meet . ' Not that he ever rambles or chats colloquially or egotistically on paper as Montaigne does : the ...
... man ever made such a confidant of paper as he did . He might have said with Montaigne , ' I speak unto paper as to the first man I meet . ' Not that he ever rambles or chats colloquially or egotistically on paper as Montaigne does : the ...
Page xix
... man were better relate himself to a statua than to let his thoughts pass in smother , and Bacon's statua was pen and paper . Perhaps some dim sense of his own principal deficiency was one reason why Bacon so systematically related ...
... man were better relate himself to a statua than to let his thoughts pass in smother , and Bacon's statua was pen and paper . Perhaps some dim sense of his own principal deficiency was one reason why Bacon so systematically related ...
Page xxiii
... man . I found in myself - he thus continues - a mind at once versatile enough for that most important object the recognition of similarities , and at the same time steady and concentrated enough for the observation of subtle shades of ...
... man . I found in myself - he thus continues - a mind at once versatile enough for that most important object the recognition of similarities , and at the same time steady and concentrated enough for the observation of subtle shades of ...
Common terms and phrases
actions ancient Aristotle atheism Augmentis Bacon better body boldness Cæsar called cause certainly Christian Church common commonly counsel counsellors cunning custom danger death degenerate arts desire Discourses dissimulation divine doth England envy Essays Essex evil faith favour fortune friendship hath heart Heraclitus honour hope human nature Induction Instauratio Magna kind King King's kingdom Kingdoms of England less Lord Chancellor Lord Macaulay Machiavelli maketh man's mankind matters means men's mincepies mind monarchy morality motion nation never nobility noble Novum Organum Parliament persons petty philosophy Plutarch politics prerogative Primum Mobile princes religion remedy Roman Rome royal royal prerogative rules saith Science scientific secret seditions seemed sense servants sometimes speak speech spirit superstition Tacitus things thought tion Toby Matthew true truth Turks unity unto Vespasian virtue wise words writes
Popular passages
Page 58 - It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an Opinion as is unworthy of him : for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely : and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose :
Page xxi - WHAT is truth ?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief, affecting free-will in thinking as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not...
Page 2 - But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
Page 4 - It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death ; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death ; love slights it ; honour aspireth to it ; grief flieth to it; fear pre-occupateth it...
Page 2 - Doth any man doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves...
Page 56 - They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body, and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
Page 3 - If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.' Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men: it being foretold, that, when 'Christ cometh,' he shall not 'find faith upon the earth.
Page xxv - But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them,) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground.
Page 2 - The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense: the last was the light of reason; and His Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of His Spirit. First, He breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then He breathed light into the face of man; and still He breatheth and inspireth light into the face of His chosen.
Page 15 - Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed ; for Prosperity doth best discover vice, but Adversity doth best discover virtue.